SMARTPHONE users will be able to download a "drinking time machine" app from this week which has been developed to show how regularly boozing too much can rapidly accelerate the ageing process.

The free app will form part of the Scottish Government's new Alcohol Behaviour Change campaign, which launches on Tuesday. Auriole Price, designer of the app, said the aim was "to shock people into drinking just a little bit less".

She said: We are appealing to people's vanity as the effects of alcohol can include red broken veins on the cheeks, bloodshot eyes, a bloated face and deeper wrinkles."

The campaign will be launched as Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon travels to Brussels to meet with European Commissioner for Health John Dalli and Scottish MEPs to discuss minimum alcohol pricing.